1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a starting control apparatus for controlling starting of a vehicle self-directively or based on a signal received from a remote control terminal. The present invention particularly relates to a starting control apparatus that can be widely used and mounted on vehicles that have difference in configuration factors, such as configuration of driving force generator and in-vehicle local area network (LAN) protocol.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, to warm up a vehicle and/or start the air-conditioner of the vehicle in advance, starting control apparatuses have been put into practical. The starting control apparatus makes it possible to start the engine by remote control or at a predetermined time point by using such as a timer (i.e., self-directively), in a situation where the driver is outside the vehicle. The starting control apparatus starts the engine when receiving an engine-start request from a remote control terminal held by the driver (a remote key) by executing operations similarly to when a starting operation is performed by using a key.
Some of the starting control apparatuses are specialized for retrofitting, for example, as an optional part, to a vehicle in a manufacturing plant after the vehicle is manufactured.
Mainly two types of vehicles are available in the market: normal vehicles and hybrid vehicles. A normal vehicle is a vehicle (gasoline engine vehicle, diesel engine vehicle, or the like) that has only an engine as a driving force generator, while an hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that has both an engine and a motor as driving force generators. Conditions for actuation and termination of starting control to be performed by a starting control apparatus, or a making time (ON period) of pulse signals forming a start-request signal to be output from the starting control apparatus are different between the normal vehicles and the hybrid vehicles.
Thus, because the conditions for actuation and termination of the starting control to be performed by a starting control apparatus, or the making time (ON period) of pulse signals that form a start-request signal to be output from the starting control apparatus are different between normal vehicle and hybrid vehicle, a starting control apparatus that is specialized for retrofitting needs to perform respective starting control appropriate to normal vehicle and hybrid vehicle. For this reason, conventionally, a starting control apparatus specialized for a normal vehicle to control the starting of the normal vehicle, and a starting control apparatus specialized for a hybrid vehicle to control the starting of the hybrid vehicle are produced as separate products.
Various protocols are available for an in-vehicle LAN protocol. Examples of the in-vehicle LAN protocol includes controller area network (CAN), body electronics area network (BEAN), time triggered protocol (TTP/C), domestic digital bus (D2B optical), media oriented system transport (MOST), and local interconnect network (LIN). When mounting a retrofitting starting control apparatus to a vehicle, a gateway to convert protocols is arranged between a vehicle bus, which is a bus on the vehicle, and an appliance bus, which is a bus on the starting control apparatus, and a predetermined in-vehicle LAN protocol is used in the appliance bus.
For example, in a BEAN-CAN transmission system in which BEAN is used in the appliance bus and CAN is used in the vehicle bus, the starting control apparatus has to create control data for the starting control in a data format defined by CAN system (data format in an application program layer), and to put the control data by CAN system onto a transmission frame by BEAN system for transmitting. By contrast, in a BEAN-BEAN transmission system in which BEAN is used in the appliance bus and BEAN is used in the vehicle bus, the starting control apparatus has to create control data for the starting control in a data format defined by BEAN system, and to put the control data by BEAN system onto a transmission frame by BEAN system for transmitting.
Thus, data formats (type of data, assigning position of information, and the like) of a data area which is assigned control data for the starting control, i.e., bit assignments, are different between a vehicle with the BEAN-CAN transmission system and a vehicle with the BEAN-BEAN transmission system. The retrofitting starting control apparatus needs to perform respective starting control appropriate to the vehicle with the BEAN-CAN transmission system and the vehicle with the BEAN-BEAN transmission system. To achieve this, conventionally, a starting control apparatus with the BEAN-CAN transmission system and a starting control apparatus with the BEAN-BEAN transmission system are separately produced.
Conventionally, a starting control apparatus specialized for normal vehicle to perform the starting control for normal vehicle, and a starting control apparatus specialized for hybrid vehicle to perform the starting control for hybrid vehicle are separately produced as different products. This complicates production and management, and increases costs.
Moreover, conventionally, starting control apparatuses that perform the starting control in an individual data format by a different in-vehicle LAN protocol are separately produced. This complicates production and management, and increases costs.
In other words, conventional starting control apparatuses have a problem that a separate apparatus is used according to the configuration of the vehicle on which the starting control apparatus is mounted. Thus, there is a need for development of a starting control apparatus that can automatically identify the configuration of the vehicle on which it is mounted and select an appropriate starting control in accordance with a result of identified configuration.